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Chad Seaman

Principal Security Researcher

Chad Seaman is a Principal Security Researcher and Team Lead of Akamai’s Security Intelligence Response Team. He proudly refers to himself as an “Internet Dumpster Diver,” and enjoys looking through the muck and mire he finds there. Chad began his career as a programmer, and after being exposed to security, exploitation, and forensics via breach investigations, security quickly became his preferred work. He now spends his time engulfed in malware investigations, reverse engineering, vulnerability research, DDoS, and cybercrime investigations. He likes flying airplanes, poking holes in paper at a distance, and spending time in nature, preferably in the woods, on a trail, or on a dirt bike.

Posts by Chad Seaman

Anatomy of a SYN-ACK Attack

April 01, 2025Chad Seaman

Learn how the TCP SYN-ACK attack vector reflection works, why it’s uncommon, and concerns it raises for security.

When CUPS Runneth Over: The Threat of DDoS

The Akamai Security Intelligence and Response Team tested and confirmed the DDoS threat in the CUPS service to provide guidance and mitigations for defenders.

Actively Exploited Vulnerability in Hitron DVRs: Fixed, Patches Available

As part of the InfectedSlurs discovery, our researchers uncovered vulnerabilities in multiple Hitron DVR device models. Learn about affected devices and firmware.

Actively Exploited Vulnerability in QNAP VioStor NVR: Fixed, Patches Available

December 14, 2023Chad Seaman and Larry Cashdollar

When researching the InfectedSlurs botnet, the SIRT uncovered a vulnerability in QNAP VioStor NVR devices being actively exploited in the wild. Get the details.

Actively Exploited Vulnerability in FXC Routers: Fixed, Patches Available

December 06, 2023Chad Seaman,  Kyle Lefton,  and Larry Cashdollar

Akamai uncovered a zero-day vulnerability in some FXC routers, which allowed the spread of Mirai. Read all about it now that the patch has been released.

Uncovering HinataBot: A Deep Dive into a Go-Based Threat

Akamai researchers uncover and reverse engineer a new Go-based DDoS botnet.

Akamai Blog | CVE-2022-26143: TP240PhoneHome Reflection/Amplification DDoS Attack Vector

March 08, 2022Chad Seaman

A new reflection/amplification distributed denial of service (DDoS) vector with a record-breaking potential amplification ratio of 4,294,967,296:1 has been abused by attackers in the wild to launch multiple high-impact DDoS attacks.

Akamai Blog | UPnProxy: Eternal Silence

January 27, 2022Chad Seaman

UPnProxy is alive and well. There are 277,000 devices, out of a pool of 3.5 million, running vulnerable implementations of UPnP. Of those, Akamai can confirm that more than 45,000 have been compromised in a widely distributed UPnP NAT injection campaign.

Akamai Blog | Threat Advisory - DCCP for (D)DoS

March 23, 2021Chad Seaman

Recent attacks against Akamai customers have leveraged a networking protocol known as protocol 33, or Datagram Congestion Control Protocol (DCCP).